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Monthly Archives: September 2011

The Village of arts and humanities is a non-profit organization in North Philadelphia that caters to urban youth in the surrounding area. It began in 1986 where local artist planned to transform an abandon lot to a clean park, assisted by youth in the area, the park was a success and from that it began to expand and evolve into the Village of today. The organization runs an afterschool program that has a numerous amount of specific areas of interest for their participants, offering video production, gardening, hip-hop dance, and fashion design. In addition, new programs such as technology labs, weekend animation and film classes are available. The Village of Arts and Humanities mission is to “support the voices and aspirations of the community through providing opportunities for self-expression rooted in art and culture.” The Village’s goals are to uplift the community and allow the youth to become involved with their community while learning skills to help them succeed in life. The Village creates a very comfortable atmosphere for whoever enters or wants to participate. Volunteers are always welcome and are looked upon as a great chance to give back to the community.

Most participants in the program get training in areas of their interest. However, there is a yearly video production that is produced by one of the classes that is held in high regard. The work of the Village is spread around North Philadelphia with multiple murals and parks. Surrounding the founding location of the first park were dozens of abandon homes some burnt, others simply deteriorated. A few years ago the participants of the program began to rehabilitate the old homes and used them as locations for the program to expand. The renovated homes were all painted and decorated in art from murals to glass art accompanied by surrounding sculptures. Looking at some of the work created by the youth I can see that there is great guidance between the students and teachers when developing their projects.

The Village of arts and humanities is a well known and awarded program recognized for their great work in the community.

This is a music video directed by Mike Carson. This videos goal is to promote the hip-hop artist known as Big Sean. This video is constructed of quick cuts of video, using images that portray the lyrics in the song. The imagery throughout the video is captivating, full of bright colors, attractive jewelry and clothing as well as other items commonly seen in popular culture. If you are familiar with hip-hop and its culture, you can clearly see all of the messages typically endorsed by some rappers in the hip-hop industry. Music videos such as this one are somewhat of a cliché and filled with stereotypes that surround rap and hip-hop and was released because of its commercialism and marketability. People may see this video and see nothing but flashy images and hear an up beat song while others may see an over emphasis on high priced materials and hear nothing but misogynistic lyrics. The lifestyle portrayed throughout this video consists of spending money, making money, having sex, and using marijuana.

In today’s era of mass media it is evident that it is the dominant form of educating amongst all other forms of learning. I feel that the media is a great tool for informing besides simply entertaining. In regards to the class and readings I understand the goal is to create media literacy for the youth, which I feel is imperative. As a student, becoming more aware of mass media and technology is a primary goal considering being literate in your field is key to your success within in it. Listed in the article Youth Media Reporter: issue 2, a goal for the students participating in the Field experience and youth literacy class are to“gain sensitivity and understanding of the cultural backgrounds and life experiences of the urban privileged youth;”I feel as though this is an important goal, coming to one of the nations most diverse universities. Partaking in mass media studies at Temple University has given me great insight in understanding the world around me. Born and raised in Philadelphia’s inner city I understand the lack of media literacy and how it correlates between the lack of knowledge about other youth in different areas besides the inner city. By displaying how the media affects a persons view on life it can be an “eye opener”, especially for urban youth.

Using technology and being a producer of many forms of media such as editing video, graphic design, photography, music composition, and having knowledge in television production. I know that content released to the public will have a direct affect on the viewer. I initially became interested in media production was at the age of fifteen. I was introduced to audio engineering and music composition through a non-profit organization that mentored urban youth and educated misguided and foreign adults. I truly credit that program for guiding me in the right direction and I know that if I was not apart of it, I would not be in my senior year of college or the man I am today. What I learned from my time producing music for the organization was discipline and gave me a chance to learn in a new environment that I was comfortable in. While learning the ins and outs of recording music my mentor constantly spoke on the type of content created and how it affects the mind. Looking back I feel that my mentor used “unique training that incorporates intensive exposure to both analysis and production” (Goldfarb, 2002) Prior to taking college courses I was educated in the mass appeal of negativity in specific genres of music and how it was important to know that with the power to create media is having power to influence. Mentioned in the text Media and Literacy new teachers in America are adapting and adopting the use of media to prompt and promote education. Similar to the teaching style of professors in the universities who have taken the step to use media to engage students, I feel that once this technique is fully incorporated into high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools, technology and media literacy will be as normal in the classroom as using text books.